So, I bought a 2001 hyundai tiburon, its somewhat sketchy it was on craigslist for $1400 with a rebuilt title. I somehow managed to get it for $600 after he took weeks of thinking. When i went to look at it there was a good amount of suprises being a 8/10 oil leak, Air bag light, check engine light, Ebrake is broke, the fender is a different shade of silver, the shifter bushings are trashed and someone put in a cold air intake but theres a hole that looks like a tube goes into on the snorkel but its full of silicone?Those problems i dont mind at all for $600, but the date on the title is only from 2 weeks ago the oil change sticker was for 2014 and 5000 miles ago the coolant is a very clean bright green and when i changed the oil is was very thick and black. The guys story for getting rid of it made sense, he said he had kids and too many vehicles we took his trailblazer to the notary and he had car seats in it and he had 2 other vehicles. Maybe im just paranoid what do you guys think?
Reading this I suspect you bought this wreck sight unseen so don’t expect any sympathy. In one your past posts you gave the impression that you wanted to buy cars from Craigslist and then resell them. If this is how you are doing it you are going to cost yourself a lot on money.
A running, moving car for 600 is good. Hyundai is disposable crap for most. Part. But u have a salvage title, numerous problem pos. Have fun. My mechanic buddy bought a salvage sante fe with blown motor. Fixed that and found out rack had big chunk missing. Hard to spot fluid leak when motor has never been run… So he cut a hole in inner fender to slide rack out. He said inner fender structure was in his way. Plasma torches are good.
I agree, buying a car sight unseen, plus not having it checked by a mechanic, is the problem.
No, im not trying to resell it. Im going to try and keep it for as long as it runs.
well, change the oil. And get a stock intake for it. Is the maf in the intake tubing?
Howd your kid react to that one haha
@8rogan - Back in August of 2016 you had a thread asking how to buy a vehicle from Craigslist. You need to go back and read it so you don’t buy a problem vehicle like you just bought again.
I’m not sure what your question is.
If I were in this position, I’d change the oil, fix the oil leak or at least keep the oil level up, ask a mechanic to inspect the car for any safety issues, and otherwise drive the car until it dies.
Does the title have his purchase price?
Anyway, sounds like he bought it to flip and (maybe) broke even.
Sounds to me like the guy was a wholesaler hoping to cash in and it went south on him and the too many vehicles is a BS story.
Change the oil, fix the leak, fix the intake issue, and go from there.
At 17 years of age and for 600 bucks not much can be expected.
Its funny because we had a conversation about how idiots expect to flip junkers
For $600 you really can’t expect much. Since it can move under it’s own power, I’d say you’re doing okay. If they do inspections in your area, then the airbag light, and broken handbrake will be issues, and if they do emissions testing then the CEL will be a problem. I would get the airbag and handbrake fixed first as those are safety issues. Then get the oil leak sorted. the CEL and the questionable CAI might be related if the mass-air sensor is obstructed.
I don’t know the mileage on the car, but these weren’t the highest quality cars ever made. You might get 5k miles out of it, you might get another 40k out of it.
As long as the title is good, this seems low risk to the OP. Worst case, it’s worth that much at the salvage yard as a parts car I expect. Try to fix it if you can. If you can’t, or it will take too much time and money to be worth your while, tow it to the salvage yard and get your money back, or at least most of it, that way. No worries.
I had an uncle that did this on a routine basis. He’d look through the newspaper ads for an old car at a bargain basement price, a car that seemed nearly ready for the junk-yard, and do the minimum it took to get it back on the road, then sell it. He was buying and selling cars all the time, didn’t think anything of buying 3 or 4 cars a month doing this. He’d earn a little money, but I think the main thing he liked was just the buying and selling part, interacting with the sellers and the buyers. He enjoyed to give the seller a little money, and to provide a car for cheap to an out of work single mom who needed a way to get to work. A win/win from his point of view.
Where I live, if you bought and sold 3 or 4 cars a month you would be between a rock and a hard place. You would either be paying 8.75% sales tax on each car or be made to buy a dealers license. If you did neither, the state would be looking to prosecute you for jumping title and not paying the sales tax and registration and plate fees and lack of auto insurance.
I am not saying there are no curbstoners around, but it is risky.
I’m not sure exactly how he handled the registration fees and title issues @oldtimer-11 … This happened in the 1960’s small town Colorado, where there was probably quite a bit of leeway on how all that could be handled. I believe he just parked the cars on his own property tho, off the street, so no need for license plates or insurance, and customers would come by and take a look at them. Any sales tax wouldn’t have amounted to much in any event, b/c I doubt he ever paid more than $250. Most of them he purchased for $50 to $75 I’ll bet. He probably just used the prior owner’s title with their signature on it, and so the official state transfer of title didn’t involve him at all. If he liked a particular model tho, after he had fixed it up and got it running more or less reliably, he’d license and drive it for a while himself. His wife had a new car and wouldn’t be caught dead seen in any of his old junkers, but he quite liked the old cars and enjoyed driving them himself. Pretty much every time he pulled into the driveway I’d look out the window & he was driving a different old car. It became a standing joke in the family "Oh, here’s Perry coming up the driveway with another junker car " … lol …